Oh wow, I go for a walk out for an hour and all hell breaks lose when I come back! So many info to unpack, trying to gather all my thoughts on the news:
- Hickman wasn't kidding during the last X-Men Monday when he said June's X-Men issue was going to be the last one, which I strongly suspected as Marvel do love shiny new number ones.
- his new book's logo is in the shape of X-Men's so I assume it will be a relaunched Uncanny/New X-Men.
- Happy to see Duggan get another title and a very high profile one at that (with Pepe no less!). I don't find his Marauders and Cable always exceptional but when he's good I find him really good.
- I'm also happy with Leah Williams getting another title. Her X-Factor has been a bit hit or miss for me but she generally has a good handle on her characters. Also happy to see Valerio Schiti being moved to a (presumably) higher-profile title: as much as I love SWORD, I don't think it's particularly successful commercially so it makes sense to move an A-list talent like Valerio to something more profitable.
- I agree with the suggestions that the artist's redacted name for Hickman's book is indeed "ARTIST"... I reeaaaalllyy hope we don't need to wait 3 months to find out. But I would rule out John Romita Jr now: his press release said his first project was going to come out in June whereas Hickman's book starts in September. I guess he could still do something short before it but I don't really think that's the case here.